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Holiday In-Store Traffic Down in 2018, ShopperTrak Says
But the combined three days leading up to Christmas Day were up 4 percent compared to last year.
New York—ShopperTrak has released its holiday shopper traffic and trends data, finding that overall traffic for the season was down this year.
According to its insights, total holiday traffic (Nov.18 to Dec .29) was down 3 percent compared with 2017.
However, the end of December provided some bright spots for retailers.
The retail analytics company found that foot traffic on Dec. 22, or Super Saturday, was up more than 2 percent when compared with the year earlier.
Additionally, the combined three days leading up to Christmas Day this year (Saturday through Monday) were up 4 percent in traffic compared to the three-day lead up in 2017 (Friday through Sunday).
The last 10 days of the shopping season, Dec. 20 to 29, were about flat, increasing by 0.3 percent year-over-year.
When it came to the days that were busiest, the firm’s prediction of which 10 days would see the most shoppers was correct, with one change: Saturday, Dec. 29 and Saturday, Dec. 1 switched places at the No. 9 and No. 10 spots.
Here is the order of the 10 busiest shopping days of the season.
1. Friday, Nov. 23, Black Friday
2. Saturday, Dec. 22, “Super Saturday”
3. Saturday, Dec. 15
4. Sunday, Dec. 23, the last Sunday before Christmas Day
5. Saturday, Nov. 24, the Saturday before Thanksgiving
6. Saturday, Dec. 8
7. Friday, Dec. 21, the Friday before Christmas
8. Wednesday, Dec. 26
9. Saturday, Dec. 29
10. Saturday, Dec. 1
ShopperTrak said those 10 days accounted for 40 percent of the total season’s brick-and-mortar traffic.
“While holiday traffic was down overall, the fact that Christmas Day came on a Tuesday, rather than a Monday, played a pivotal role in creating more last-minute shopping activity,” said Brian Field, senior director of global retail consulting for ShopperTrak.
“This year, retailers promoted extended shopping hours for the entire weekend in-store helping attract more late shoppers and increase brick-and-mortar activity right before the holiday and continuing through the end of December.”
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